Doe's POV:

Xander left for his royal prince business about an hour ago, leaving me to my own devices as I set out on a journey to figure my way around this gigantic floor.

Apparently, there was an outdoor garden somewhere around here? And an entire library?

I had to find the music room as well.

All of which I knew I could find easily with Xander's help, but I could use a bit of clueless adventure.

Now that I could safely leave our room in this territory, I wanted to take advantage and learn what this new place had to offer.

And, well, I figured that someone else may be in be in the same boat as me.

With her... roommate...I guess, being out on royal business and also having no idea where to begin in this new space we were in.

Plus, I think it's about time that we got to know each other properly.

I somehow managed to make it to the other side of this floor and spot the stupidly large doors that matched ours.

After giving it a knock, I stepped back and waited.

The door opened just a sliver, a light blue eye peaking through the crack to see who it was.

The eye widened with a quiet, "Oh!" before she opened the door fully.

She too looked like this place was already affecting her in a positive light.

Though I truly don't think we've ever interacted under an entirely stress-free circumstance, so that must play a part in what I was seeing from her now.

This is the straightest I've seen her stand, and lacking the usual look of her shoulders closing in on her.

I could see it in her eyes and the welcoming smile she gave me.

Jeez, we should have moved here months ago.

"What's up?" Even her voice heald more confidence behind it.

"The brothers are out and I've been wanting to explore around this place, so I was wondering if you wanted to join me?"

She perked at my offer before I got to the second half.

"I think it'd be nice for us to properly talk without the whole... getting shoved into freezing cages or getting caught in the middle of their old brother feud part of it. Without any vampires nearby, I guess."

There were so many restrictions on us that were no longer a thought here, and if I'm being honest, I still wasn't sure the proper way to approach it all.

But I didn't want to wait around on any of it either.

"I... Yeah, I would love that," She began stepping out and closing the door behind her, "I've been wanting to talk to you under some normal circumstances for a while now."

My brows rose.

"You have?"

I don't know why I felt so surprised by that.

She pulled down the sleeves that were priorly rolled up, smudges of blue and green streaking over her hands and fingers.

It was similar enough to the painter's hands I'd seen on the streets back in Bronwyn's territory that I made the quick connection.

"Of course," There was a slight stiffness in the way she walked, but I knew what it was from. Luckily it wasn't anywhere as bad as Marcus' was, "I wanted to talk more back at that clinic, but it wasn't the proper setting. Now that we're here there's not a whole lot stopping us, and I've missed having friends. I feel like we'd have a lot to talk about now that things are settled."

She's had friends before?

Okay, so she's probably knowledgeable on how these things work.

I already had Xander, but what was between him and me felt different than this.

A lot different.

But other than that, her words enlivened me even more.

There was so much I wanted to know about her. Questions I've had since the moment I saw her.

Where she came from, what ridiculous ways she was 'trained', and how she managed to win the favor of Nico and turned him into someone who gives her hickeys and stares at her during limo rides.

"Me too! I practically have a list of things I want to ask you."

The emotional, almost reminiscent joy in her eyes and smile was a new look on her.

"Might as well start now then."

We picked a random direction and just started walking.

"But first, how's your back," I could still hear the lingering guilt from that day.

"It's fine believe me," I waved it off, "From the looks of it, it's much better than yours is right now."

"Yeah," her eyes drifted downwards in a slight hesitance with her next words, "So, from what Nico said on the ride over, she's done that to you too?"

I caught myself fumbling for some reason.

I guess it just reminded me how in the dark to my whole situation she still was.

I wasn't expecting Nico to pass along the information. I knew he didn't like to play the middleman and instead let people tell their own stories for themselves.

Which, right about now, I became thankful for.

Even Nico didn't have all of the important details.

Though, how much of it was explicitly my story to tell?

This at least felt like it was, but just how deep should I get into it.

"Sorry if that's too much right off the bat," She spoke quickly.

She must have mistaken my silence for something else.

And again, just like back at that clinic, I found myself giggling at her worry.

"Trust me, that's not it at all," I clarified, "I just realized how much I need to catch you upon. But yes, It was only once about two years ago. Back when that whole thing started. Nico had to stitch me up on that coffee table in his room with stuff he just happened to have nearby."

"What!?"

I looked over to see a paint-stained hand over her mouth, eyes wide in terror.

Meanwhile, I just blinked at her.

Was it weird that I didn't react to the memory the same way she was?

It sounded like horror, I'll admit, but looking back on it, it feels more like looking at a clouded scene through someone else's eyes rather than having lived it myself.

A lot of things involving Layla did, but I couldn't figure out a definitive answer why.

It just didn't feel... real I guess...

I was such a different person now than I was back then, so it was hard for me to get back into that mindset to put myself back into that memory.

Back then I thought that I'd done something to deserve it.

That experiencing that sort of thing was just part of my life as a pet, and as terrifying as it was, I just had to endure it and do whatever I could to keep it from happening again.

Oh how much I've had to snap out of from there...

"Yeah, that was the start of Nico patching me up, so he started keeping more medical supplies around his room. As I'm sure you've seen."

She just gave me a slight nod, slowly dropping her hands and showing the full picture of her unease.

"I guess Nico's dealt with those kinds of wounds more than I thought..." She thought aloud.

"Yeah, Nico's had to deal with a lot of wounds from me for a while now. Given the circumstances though, the scars they left were a lot harder to see than they should have been."

I gotta give credit where credit is due.

My sight fell to the familiar, still-healing scab on her lower neck.

"Her bites never heal quite right either given how she liked to tear, so those scars are hard to avoid."

"She's bitten you too?" She perplexed.

That need to clear the image of Xander she had in her mind hit hard, despite knowing that what she experienced with him gave her every right to view him that way.

Still...

"Every scar you've seen on me was from her," I decided to disclose.

Again, her eyes rounded.

"Wait what?!"

Xander's bites never scarred. Even during the bloodmoons, he managed to keep that consistent.

I gave a confident nod.

"Yup. Xander was so smitten with her that he took the fall for everything she did to me."

I watched as she thought that over, her face showing some odd emotions as she went through it all.

Even saying that sentence alone left so much more to be clarified.

"Well what you said to me back in that clinic is starting to make more sense now," she muttered.

Oh yeah, I probably sounded like a psycho just saying all of that stuff after the image he'd set.

My stupid emotions and how much I was missing him just managed to make me sentimental I guess.

"I did promise you that full story, but I'm not sure tonight is the night we get into it."

I wanted to clear Xander's name. Completely clear it so badly, but I didn't want to make a rushed job of it.

And something told me that the story was going to take quite a while to get through with all of the important details.

And... some of the more recent details that I'm probably going to leave out for my own sake.

That, and I still want to make sure that Xander would be okay with me telling the story on his behalf.

"From what it sounds like, It's going to be quite the story."

"A very long one, so you might want to prepare yourself."

Her giggle was another thing I hadn't heard before.

"I can't wait. Ever since we got back from that place, things just weren't adding up with him. He just seems different lately... happier almost."

It's great, isn't it?

"They both do," I pointed out.

I don't think I've ever seen Nico so... expressive.

"Yeah," She sighed almost wistfully, a hint of blush tinting her pale cheeks.

Huh...

"But anyway, That story isn't something I can get into now, but I can tell you everything leading up to that." I offered

"You grew up in the pet industry, right?"

I found her question strange.

"Yeah, didn't you?"

She shook her head.

It was my turn to be surprised.

"You weren't?!"

Well, that actually explained a few things.

"Nope," She started, " I was a citizen back in Brownyn's territory for the first twelve years of my life. It's. .. hard to get into, but I can share my story too."

"You don't have to if you don't want to," I cleared up.

I was more than willing to share my stories, but I didn't want her to think that meant that I was expecting the same in return.

"No no, It's fine. It'll make up for all the lost time we had seeing each other but never getting to correctly meet."

Well in that case.

"Do you wanna go first?" I asked

"You go ahead," She insisted, "From what you've said already, I'm curious."